The blues of the sky, the jade colored water, and the dark greens of the landscape almost don't look real. It is as if everything is digitally painted on to a movie screen.
And then there are the glaciers. Many of them are really blue! You hear people talk about them being blue but until you actually see them for yourself you can't appreciate their beauty. The Norwegian Pearl sails past several glacier during its cruise through the park including Margerie Glacier and Grand Pacific Glacier. These two glaciers are where you spend over an hour watching. The ship is so maneuverable that the captain is able to spin the ship in place. This allows everyone to get a great view of both glaciers.
Be sure to listen to the glaciers. If you here a loud cracking and rumble, what is called "white thunder", look for the glacier to calve. Calving is when large chunks of ice break free from the glacier to form icebergs. Peg shot a great photo of one of the larger events while we were at the glacier.
The bluest ice of all the glaciers that we saw this day came from the Lamplugh Glacier. You can also just see an ice cave in the second shot which is almost closed by the glacier calving.
Glacier Bay is also home to much animal life. Keep your eyes open for humpback whales, orcas, eagles, bears, tons of birds, and of course otters.
While the colors of Glacier Bay are spectacular, the textures are just as equally thrilling. You can take all the color out of the scene and still have a wonderful landscape.
Our tour through Glacier Bay National Park made my cheeks hurt. I couldn't stop smiling from the time we entered until the time we left. And no, it wasn't because of the "Snowplows" that I was drinking even though they were really good!
After spending an entire day in Glacier Bay aboard the Norwegian Pearl I was a little sad to see the park rangers leave. We have great memories now and hope to return someday. We have a few more photos of the glaciers over on our photo site if you want to peek. BG Customs Photography.